Phil Rudin

Hi @Aquatica you may also want to join the Industry forum.

I have tested both the AOI and WWL-1 side by side on the same camera system and image quality wise you will see little difference. I like the AOI buoyancy collar best because it is split in half and can be mounted more easily onto the lens. It is also easer to pack because it is two sections rather than one large round ring. That being said the new WWL-1B with the built in buoyancy collar and bayonet mounting system would be a better choice between the AOI and Nauticam offerings at the price point.

That would be light coming from above the jetty

Twin spot goby, (Signigobius biocellatus), Pemuteran Jetty, Bali, Indonesia. Under the Jetty, with the Sony A7R V and 90 macro lens, Marelux housing and port, two MF-2 strobes, ISO-160, F/14, 1/250th sec. View 1 commentnull

ZEN Underwater offers remote triggers.

I agree, most strobes that do HSS say third party trigger required in the manual and let the buyer figure out the rest. I spoke with Marelux today and suggested an update of the manual to include a note on which strobe features require a third party flash trigger. Third party flash trigger is a requirement for TTL, RC, HSS and MTL. This differs from camera to camera. With my Sony cameras the setting remains the same as it I was using the manual LED flash trigger from Marelux. I would suggest that anyone wanting to use HSS should go to your search engine and look for explanations on why mechanical shutter and global shutter can do HSS and electronic can not. Rule of thumb is that full frame cameras with electronic shutter can get to around 1/200th and APS-C can get to around 1/250th. The smaller sensor size allows for the extra 1/50th just like with the Sony A1 where you can get 1/400th in FF and 1/500th in APS-C with the Marelux manual trigger with 1/250th for other cameras in the A7 line. The UWT trigger I see says it works with Apollo III 2.0 for R6 II and I assume it has its own setting but again that varies from strobe to strobe. For Sony it is #3 on the number wheel. I would suggest trying something other than the Retra profile because that is not the same on my UWT trigger. For those using Turtle it may be another setting. This is why the strobe manufactures don't provide this information. LumiLink simply can't past the signal as fast as fiber optic cords and again will be different for some cameras. I love Lumilink for off camera strobe operation where you may want to back light a subject without needing an on camera flash to trigger a slave like with other strobes. TTL/RC (Olympus TTL) does not work with Lumilink.

It appears the S&S may help but I need to look at more images at different F/numbers. Also the 30mm extension without the S&S. I first tried a 20mm extension when I got the lens and they were bad but also shot at F/8. I really need to start all over and evaluate any gain with S&S.

So this is the Laowa 10mm with Marelux Sony A1 housing, 140mm dome port and 30mm extension. These were shot using the S&S conversion lens. My copy is the same 77mm as the lens soI thought I would give it a try. All were at F13 and the split is at F/22. First image is with the shade installed and you can Clearly see the shade at the top and bottom. Marelux shade is bayonet mount so it can be removed and reinstalled very quickly. These were shot with the standard Marelux flash trigger using Apollo III strobes for fill at 1/400th sec. You may also notice that the steps and tile are every bit as wide as the many shots I have posted with a verity of wet lenses with the same 130 degree AOV at 28mm and the same distance to subject. In fact they look wider than some wet 130 degree lenses I have tested.

Perhaps I was not clear, Apollo III version II has a B in front of the last three numbers in the serial number. The A2D at the beginning is the same for both versions. Apollo S has the same Type II features but starts with M2D and has the A before the last three numbers. With Apollo III V,II and Apollo S both work with the same flash trigger (in my case) UWTechnics to do HSS, MTL and TTL with fiber cords. With LumiLink V.II you get 1/250th sync, HSS and MTL support.

Hi BC, are you using the auto focus version or the Manual focus version?

So my math is not that great but using your chart of 58.8cm for R5C with no adapter and 27mm for A7R V plus 35.5 adapter you get a total of 62.5 or a 3.7mm difference if I am understanding correctly. I don't own any precision tool but when I use a ruler the distance from the lens mounting ring to the top of the Marelux housing where the port seats against the front of the housing is close to 30mm +/-1mm. So Sony A7RV/A1 30mm + 35mm of extension for the 140mm dome port is 65mm. So the N100 to N120 35.5+15mm equals 50.5 plus 27 for Sony RV equals 77.5mm. So neither the 15 or 10mm extensions will work well. To get to 65mm for the Nauticam 140mm port it would be the 27mm for A7R V + 38mm of extension. So it seems that 35.5mm N100 to N120 would be as close as you can get. Also the 35mm distance is the same for both my Sony A7R V and A1 housings so no variations between housings. Also the Marelux 140mm port with bayonet shade sits flat against the port extension. I don't remember if Nauticam has the same design so any differences would need to be taken into considerations. I will test again using 30mm's of extension rather than 35mm and see if I find any improvement. Also if someone has a more precise measurement for Marelux Sony housings please post.

I have ask Marelux direct and will let you know when I hear back.

So for Aquatica 230mm/9.25" and 152mm/6" ports the extension is 39.5mm (#48462) when using the Canon 8-15mm Fisheye zoom with adapter. For Marelux using the 230mm and 140mm ports the extension is 40mm for the Canon 8-15mm with adapter, very close to the Aquatica. With Nauticam using 230mm and 140mm ports the extension is 65.5 or N100 to N120 35.5 + N120 30mm extension II using the Canon 8-15mm with adapter. Unfortunately Aquatica does not list the length of extension #48461 used with the eight inch acrylic port for the same lens. Extrapolate from this what you will or you can compare other like lenses, ports and extensions. Also be aware that the Aquatica 8" acrylic is not a fisheye type port so likely to be less forgiving.

As I have said on several occasions I do old-school testing and basically come up with the same results without all the math. First I have said back several pages the 180mm dome is a buster Laowa 10mm, just not worth the effort. For travel with both the Sony FE 20-70mm and the Laowa 10mm F/2.8 the best two choices are the 140mm port with the shade removed and the 230mm port with shade. Any of the Matty Smith domes also work well. Port extension varies depending on the housing brand you are using and the available extension lengths. Regarding Nauticam the 140mm & 230mm ports are N120 and the shortest N100 to N120 port adapter is the expensive 25mm specifically designed for use with the WACP-2 and Sony FE 14mm F/1.8 lens. The next choice is the recommended 35.5mm port adapter which should vignette. With the Marelux housing I am using 35mm's of extension a 20mm + 15mm. The closest equivalent in Nauticam would be an N100 to N120 15mm extension which does not exist. Best choice will be the over $700.00 N100 to N120 25mm with some vignetting or to contact SAGADIVE.com and have a custom extension in the 15mm range made which will cost less than the NA-25mm option. Please feel free to correct me if my Nauticam conversion is wrong. Photos are the Sony FE 20-70mm in the Marelux 140mm dome with shade. The block with the currency is closest focus at 70mm. The pool light is 20mm at closest focus. The steps and split are both at 20mm. I am using 75mm's of extension with the Marelux housing for these test photos. Marelux setup with the Laowa 10mm and 35mm's of extension. null

I am currently shooting Marelux housings for A7R V and A1 using 20mm extension for the 230mm and MS 12 inch ports and 35mm for the 140mm dome with shade removed. Not sure how this translates to Aquatica but 25mm sounds close.

You may want to contact Aquatica direct because they have the lens and appear to be making custom extensions for all three large ports glass and acrylic.

I think the broader issue here may be why underwater photographers. I have been traveling to Cozumel through Cancun for decades and I have never seen anyone taxed on a $5000.00 bag of golf clubs, custom surf boards, dive gear, custom bycicles or any of a number of other sporting goods. I seems that if you have expensive camera gear you must be a professional U/W photographer (whatever that is) but not a pro surfer, pro golfer and so on. For me this is simple, the Caribbean and Central America are littered with excellent dive destinations where I won't be confronted with these possible customs issues on arrival. I have dozens of friends in the Mexican dive industry and it concerns me that this customs problem is causing them to loose business but as a consumer why would I want this possible aggravation on my arrival for a relaxing holiday.

I see many BW shooters using 60mm macro lenses on DSLR, APS-C cameras which is about equal to the Sony 90mm macro I use on Sony full frame. Lots of full frame shooters are also using 100/105 lenses with success.

Architeuthis, I don't have access to the Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 II GM so I have not compared the two. Howeverthe Sony FE 16-25mm F/2.8 G it is the best lens in the range that I have used to date. Based on feedback from folks I know in the industry the 16-35mm F/2.8 II GM in the 180mm port does not outperform the 16-25 except for the extra focal length. Also I own the Sony FE 20-70mm F/4 also a G lens and would chose it over 16-35 if I want extra length underwater, I also prefer this lens above water. These two lenses cost about the same as the GM lens and both work well in the 180mm dome. These lenses are part of my travel kit along with the Laowa 10mm and 140mm or 230mm port. Chris, The Canon RF 15-30mm is not a lens I have tested in the 180mm port however I have been told by friends in the industry that it does not preform as well in the 180mm port as the close focusing Sony lenses in the same focal range. Dreifish, The Sony FE 24-50mm F/2.8 G has been added to the latest Nauticam update (7/9/24) for Sony FF housings from A7 II forward. It will pare with WACP-C and a verity of ports but WWL-C is not listed. The Nikon's 13mm fisheye is a great lens but it is not light at over two pounds before the conversion so I don't think the difference V 8-15 in 140 port will be that big a difference. For someone who uses fisheye 90% of the time rather than 10% this may be a more attractive offering. Also I doubt that this lens can be made to focus much above 15 FPS. SAGA makes custom extensions so they may be able to offer something in the 12/13 range. The port adapters for WACP-1 are also offered for a number of housings besides Nauticam.

I can do this with $1000.00 to spare and cover most of your needs. First the only mirrorless camera line that has a fisheye lens is the M4/3 8mm fisheye New about $800.00 from Panasonic and $900.00 on sale in the US from Olympus. (Sigma does make a 15mm F/1.8 fisheye for Sony and L-mount for $2000.00 but not well suited to U/W work) I really like the M4/3 format but regardless if you go OM-10 IV or OM-1 II the 20MP image quality remains about the same as it has been over the last several years. Both cameras sync to 1/250th and OM-1 has a higher dot LED screen than the OM-10. The Canon EOS R50 costs $700.00 with the 18-45mm kit lens it has a 24MP sensor which has better image quality than the OM-1 II, it uses the same LCD as the OM-1 and has the 1/250th sync speed. It also has a pop-up flash that can trigger optical strobes in manual of TTL. It has decent video, a base ISO of 100 and more. Nauticam makes an interesting housing for this camera that has a fixed flat port and a builtin bayonet mount that allows you to add closeup lenses like CMC-1 and wide wet lenses like WWL-C and WWL-1B. A complete Nauticam NA-R50 Pro Package system includes tray with both grips and ball mounts and vacuum system and trigger extension for $2030.00 with camera and lens that gets you too $2730.00, CMC-1 which gives you macro capability at 45mm and WWL-C which gives coverage from 116 to 52 degrees adds 1546.00 bringing the total to $4276.00. The striped down version without the grips and tray with a vacuum system brings you under $4000.00. The CMC-1 requires a $58.00 bayonet adapter. If you want to go to WWL-1B with 130 to 60 degree coverage add an additional $387.00. The big upside to this system is it travels well, only requires one camera lens, transitions well from a compact because you will likely use the LCD and havery good image quality.

Chris, I think you may have may have mixed up lenses. The Canon RF 15-35mm an F/2.8 lens only focuses to 28cm not at all well suited to a 180mm dome. The Canon 15-30mm F/4.5-F/6.3 focuses to only 13cm which would seem to be a much better fit for the 180mm dome. This is a highly rated lens that is about 1/6th the price of the 16-35 F/2.8 in the US, $2100.00 v $350.00.

Regarding Sony FE rectilinear lenses in a 180mm dome port you need to be careful about lens choice. Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 GM minimum focus is 28cm. Sony FE 16-35mm F/2.8 GM II is 22.1cm Sony FE 16-35mm F/4 PZ is 24cm Tamron 17-28mm F/2.8 is 19cm Sony FE 16-25mm F/2.8 is 18cm For best results in the 180mm dome those with a minimum focus distance of 20cm or less work best with the GM II working pretty well also. I recently moved from the Tamron 17-28 F/2.8 to the Sony FE 16-25mm F/2.8 G. Image quality is every bit as good as the GM II underwater in the 180mm dome at half the cost. Looking back over more than thirty years of using 16-35mm lenses U/W I used the 16-24mm range over 95% of the time so will not be missing the 35mm end. I also used the Nikon's RS as my only U/W system for sixteen years and at best used the 13mm fisheye about 10% of the dives I made. I just don't see the big upside over housing the Canon 8-15mm in 140 and 230mm ports. While I love many of the A1 features I have been using the A7R V almost exclusively since adding the UW Technics trigger and Marelux strobes with HSS. I rarely shoot above 1/800th so the power falloff is not that great V the 1/400th with the A1. Regarding the Marelux housing V. Nauticam N100 housing for Sony FF cameras the conversion is about 17mm difference. So with WACP-1 you use the N100-N130 35.5 port adapter for 28-60 with Nauticam. With Marelux I use the 20mm NA to MX extension for WACP-1 and the custom 17mm N100 to MX extension for WACP-C. With WACP-C using 17mm the image is noticeably wider (10 degrees or so) V the Nauticam setup. For the Laowa 10mm I have been using Marelux 20mm extension for the 230mm and 12 inch Matty Smith. If Marelux releases a 25mm extension I think that would be the best option but you begin to split hairs when getting down to 5mm increments. With the 140mm dome I use 35mm (20mm+15mm) with the sun shade removed. At 40mm the system will vignette. SAGADIVE.com makes custom port extensions for Nauticam down to about 12/13mm in N120. Not sure about N100.

For me the Nikon T5 is just another option, I also have 10mm and 16mm extension tubes for Sony full frame. Most of use who shoot a lot of macro are in the area 0f 1:1 out to about 1:4/1:5. At 1:5 you are over half a meter from the subject. Very few macro shooters are shooting from two/three meters away with a macro lens. The T5 is a X 1.5 diopter closeup lens where you are shooting through extra glass. The 16mm extension tube gets you about the same amount of additional magnification but without shooting through extra glass. The downside for the extension tube is it requires extra light, one stop at the most where the T5 does not. Both put you in a range where you can't get to infinity. Both can also be used with wet closeup lenses for greater magnification. An additional upside is a quality used Nikon T5 cost around $50.00 and a new set of extensions is around $83.00, The SMC-1 recommended for full frame cameras is currently $589.00. For budget minded folks starting out these are great options V. Wet lenses.

I have been advised that the version 1.0 of Lumilink can be upgraded by Marelux to version 2.0 but version 1.0 of the Apollo III strobe can not be upgraded to version 2.0. UW Technics flash trigger also needs to be upgraded which can also be done by returning to UWT.